The award is handed to the young musician who has shown the most talent throughout the week-long Peterborough Music Festival event.

And in the festival’s 80th year, it could not have chosen a more suitable winner in singer Grace Wain, from Deeping St James, near Market Deeping, in what was her last year of eligibility. Now 19, Grace, who is studying a music degree specialising in voice at the Royal Welsh of Music and Drama, in Cardiff, will be too old to enter next year.

She said: “I was shocked, especially as, apparently, a singer rarely wins the award. It’s the last time I could enter the competition and it’s the first time I have got to compete, as I had tonsilitis last year.”

Grace was put forward for the final showdown against eight other talented musicians, having won the under-18 classes for solo singer, songs from shows and own song choice and collected the Sir Franklin Braithwaite Award and the Lillian Palmer Trophy.

Music festival secretary Felicity Kamminga said: “We’ve had a fantastic week and the festival seems to be growing. The entrants are up in almost everything.”